Tuesday, November 20, 2007

In honor of CHOGM/Thanksgiving

This week is a historic time for Uganda. Uganda will host the "Common Wealth Heads Of Government Meeting" or otherwise none as CHOGM. The country has been bustling with activity for the past year getting ready for this historic event. 54 Heads of State will be arriving or already have arrived here in Kampala for the meeting and the events surrounding the occasion. The Queen herself along with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, her son Prince Charles of Whales and his wife Camilla will be attending.
Roads have been paved, building painted, flowers planted, hotels built and signs all over the country saying,"Are you ready for CHOGM"? The Queen arrives on Wednesday and the festivities officially start on Friday and the road we live on which is one of the main corridors for the delegates to drive on is still being painted, rails put up, lights and landscaping installed and dirt swept off of the road. Someone is not ready for CHOGM. Security is out of site with trucks of military personnel, police and other special security forces being dropped off by the 100's. They are supposed to make people feel safer with their AK 47's pointed at us, but it does the opposite for me.
So for the momentous occasion our kids and some of their friends went to the Awino Market(I will have a whole section in my blog later on that)to find special attire to see the Queen in and to go to some of the events in. They asked some of the native people what they thought about CHOGM and here is some of the responses.......

"This Mr. Chogm is causing many problems"
" I have seen this Mr. Chogm with my own eyes and he is a very skinny man"
"Mr. Chogm is bringing a lot of trouble to Uganda"
"Are you Chogm?"
"I don't like this CHOGM"
"The Queen is coming to see Mr. Chogm"
"Are you the Queen?"

So, obviously all of the press about CHOGM and the government trying to make sure everyone was READY for it failed to get the point across WHAT CHOGM is.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American readers. We hope you all have a wonderful day and that you are truly thankful for all of your many blessings.

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